Legislation

Last week, Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced a bill – the California Emergency Drought Act – focused on relieving California of its severe drought. Under this bill, the state would see $1.3 billion over 10 years. The money would be allocated for storage, desalination and water recycling projects. “I’m hopeful the …

With the California drought in full affect, the State Water Resources Control Board began issuing notices to farmers and water agencies demanding they meet Governor Jerry Brown’s mandatory water cutbacks. Some agencies and farmers are deemed senior water rights holders, meaning they usually are exempt from these types of cuts. …

Last week, the House of Representatives voted on H.R. 2898, the Western Water and American Food Security Act of 2015. The legislation was passed 245-176. Under the newly passed legislation, water policies will be modernized, meaning the federal regulators would be able to capture water during periods of greater precipitation. …

The California Senate will see a new bill to address the drought in California. State Senator Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont), has introduced a bill that would allow local water agencies to create an excise tax on those who use excessive amounts of water. The bill, known as S.B. 780, would allow …

Three states – Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi – are suing the Obama Administration to stop the implementation of one key part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Water Act. These three states are challenging the EPA’s ability to regulate water pollution, which would expand the federal government’s scope of …

Now that California is in its fourth year of extreme drought and Governor Jerry Brown has mandated a 25 percent reduction in water use throughout the state, some experts are proposing some possible alternatives to imposing water use restrictions on homeowners. One such alternative is the taxation of organic products …